Its great living in a Southwest Florida town. Great sunshine, awesome weather, beaches, etc. As amazing as it is in this area, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, and even Naples, have some unexpected side-effects for homeowners and sellers. Living in a beach town means salt-water air, which a need to regularly lubricate your doors. I can’t tell you how many door handles I’ve broken during showings because a slider was jammed or a drawer wouldn’t pull out. Undoubtedly, sticking doors and broken handles always make for a mildly awkward moment during the real estate showing. If you have doors that stick and creek, it’s time to lube them up. Although WD-40 is a common “go-to,” I wouldn’t suggest it. Long term, WD-40 will strip and damage the

Buyers will look in your closets. Most sellers don’t consider the fact that everything that they’ve shoved into their closets will be, pretty much, on public display. I know that it can be tempting to throw some loose clothing into the closet before a showing, but try to have clean closets before showings. I’ve shown houses where avalanches fell out of closets and onto the buyers… After that, it’s hard to say to a buyer “but look at how spacious the closet is!” Save yourself the hassle. Save yourself the embarrassment. Take an afternoon and clean out, or put away your closets. And not just the bedroom closets. Clean pantries, clean the mud rooms, and clean linen closets. Go through your kids rooms and make sure that they have clean

I you’re selling your house, or even thinking about selling, I would suggest taking care of all those minor repairs you’ve been “meaning” to do. One repair I would recommend immediately is fixing leaky faucets. Picture this: an agent and his buyer are viewing your house. Its dead silent until they hear drip… drip… drip… drip… drip… drip. They hear your leaky faucets. It seems minor, but once you introduce one problem, however small, buyers often begin wondering what else you haven’t properly maintained. Is the water heater rusted out? Is the roof leaking? What’s the condition of the air conditioner? Is the sky about to fall??? You get the idea. Just repairing any leaky faucets. It’s an easy repair to make. You can read an article or

Evening showings aren’t uncommon, but showings after dark are a little more rare. Sometimes, we sell real estate to people who have weird schedules. Whether it’s because they’re some sort of caped crusader, zombie, or because they work late shifts, once in a while, buyers want showings at night. In the unlikely event that you do have a real estate showing late at night, here’s some advice. There’s one thing that come to mind: LIGHTS! Turn on every light you have. You can’t turn on enough lights, especially at night. It makes you home really stand out if you have a well lit house during a night showing. It’s tough for agents to figure out what switch turn on which lights, so I would advise skipping the awkwardness and just turning

It’s not uncommon that sellers play some music during showings. Regardless of whether its common or not, I don’t recommend it. It’s impossible to guarantee that your musical preferences will coincide with those of the buyers walking through your home. To put it bluntly, most of the time, you’ll just pick the wrong kind of music. Please don’t misunderstand, it’s not that you have bad taste. With hundreds of different genres of music, and dozens of sub-genres even within those genres, the statistical probability of your tastes coinciding are highly unlikely. If you are absolutely going to play music anyway, just to avoid the dead silence of an empty house, here’s a few tips. First off, play it low. Whatever music you end up

If you’ve ever seen the movie Home Alone, you know that a house can quickly become a very dangerous place. Before showings, make your house safe. This tip seems like an obvious one, but it may not be so obvious. Safety during showings is probably not something you’ve considered because you know your own home and the placement of would-be “traps,” but buyers and agents won’t. Take a look around your home from the perspective of a potential buyer. Think about what could be a hindrance to people who are not familiar with the layout of your home. If you have any extension cords or loose cables around, do your best to put them away. Consider taping down wild or bunching rugs and put away any sharp objects. Consider that there may

I’ve seen this happen a hundred times: A buyer is walking through a home an starts making negative comments about the tile, countertops, creaky fan, etc. If the seller was there during the showing (which I advise against), they often begin to apologize emphatically for the home’s defects. What’s more, sellers sometimes begin offering to make repairs that were never asked for. If you’re looking to sell your house faster and for more money, don’t apologize for your house. The person who knit picks at every little chip in the tile or squeaking door is likely not the right buyer for your house. The person who will buy your house and pay you top dollar for it is the person who loves your house, defects and all. They view

Here in Southwest Florida, its not uncommon for sellers to want to sell their home fully furnished, or “turn-key.” For that matter, people looking to purchase homes to retire into or as a vacation home are often happy to buy a fully furnished home. Its great buying a house, especially a vacation house, and having the cars, boats, furniture, appliances, dishware, and even the linens ALREADY THERE! A lot of times, it can be a win-win… That being said, there is a time and a place to sell your household belongings. Selling DURING the sale of your home, is probably not the right time. Don’t interrupt buyers in the middle of a showing to try and sell your “stuff.” If you want to sell your house fully furnished, let your agent

Allow for Showings

I can’t say this enough: ALLOW FOR SHOWINGS! I know that finding time for showings when you’re selling your home can be tough. Between getting the house cleaned up, making sure it smells nice, and making sure the pets are away, it can be tough to find time in your schedule for showings. Believe me, I understand having a busy schedule, but if you work with us to allow for showings, it will sell your house faster and for more money. Sometimes, I’m able to sell homes with just the use of videos and photos. However, that’s more of the exception rather than the norm. The more showings you allow on your home, the more statistically likely you are to get someone to fall in love with your house. The best advice I can give you is to try and

Tip 26: Fitness Equipment

Here is my rule with fitness equipment: it has to have its own place. If it is displacing functionality, it should go elsewhere. Many luxury homes are designed with fitness room. My house, for instance, has a dedicated building just for fitness equipment. I have seen homes with tastefully done as large as a 3000 sq ft fitness center located with in their personal residence. However, if your home is a regular 3 bedroom house taking up one of the bedrooms with fitness equipment, even a fold away treadmill, in my opinion, will cost you money as the seller. A buyer may perceive your home as only has 2 bedrooms or find the equipment to be unsightly. I caution even people who decide to use their den in this way. Many people have an

Most Viewed Pages

Client Testimonials

The Mike Lombardo Team has worked diligently, with honesty and integrity on several residential sales on our behalf. We have traversed through several rough contracts that only an experienced team could handle with their expertise. Berte and I appreciate… Jack and Berte P., Fort Myers, Florida